No Good Deed
by This Polar Noise
Summary: When Heimdall saves Loki from torture at the hands of Odin, the Avengers Tower ends up with a new inhabitant. None of them could ever have imagined the All-Father's retaliation and it isn't long before the heroes learn that no good deed goes unpunished... (Blind!Loki)[Rating for violence so far, full list of warnings inside] HIATUS
1. Chapter 1

**OKAY GUYS I'M BACK.**

 **I've been trying to fix this bloody thing for months but HERE IT IS. A version of No Good Deed that hopefully won't get deleted within the first… what was it last time? About four chapters? Sorry, I just got really angry about something and stress-deleted.**

 **Anyway, I appreciate your patience with me if you were reading this first time round and hope you enjoy it if this is your first encounter,**

 **H.**

 **Canon Divergence after Avengers Assemble, set after The Winter Soldier but before AoU. The events of Iron Man 3/The Winter Soldier/AoS are the same but it ignores any Loki based plot developments from The Dark World. Basically assumes Thor or, more likely, Jane worked out how to save the universe without his help. In no way compliant with Age of Ultron.**

 **WARNINGS**

 **Torture (both past and present), blood/gore, suicidal thoughts, mentions of past child abuse, language, most likely more of these added as the rest is written/uploaded. The beginning is shameless Loki whump and Odin bashing, basically. (For the record, I don't mind Odin as a character but he's such an easy target for these things)**

 **As far as pairings go I'm considering Loki/Bruce/Natasha but I may just fall back on GammaFrost or BlackFrost. If you could give me a review with your opinions on this or a message or whatever, that'd be great.**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing. With all those things I just had to warn you about, it's probably for the best.**

* * *

From his post on the Bifrost, Heimdall watched the Nine Realms and the hundreds of thousands more worlds around them. There were billions upon billions of souls out there in the universe and Heimdall could see every single one of them from here, or anywhere else. A lesser mind would have crumbled long ago if it had been opened to these sights. A mortal couldn't have survived for over a minute. Heimdall knew many Asgardians thought him slow but he didn't mind. The things he knew and saw every day would both amaze and terrify them. To have so many experiences flowing through his head was worth their judgements.

The universe was a beautiful place, it was true. So much life, so much happiness. He saw it all. But then there was also the opposite end of the spectrum. So much pain. Heimdall's true burden was having to watch both on realms so far away, unable to do a thing to change any of it. Some days were easy. But then there were the wars that spanned entire solar systems and injustice that killed billions and he couldn't do a single thing about but watch.

Today was different. Today he could see the suffering and it was close, too close. Torture, and on Asgard, on his world. He didn't approve of this form of false justice, far from it; there was no honour in hurting someone who was already your prisoner. Heimdall would have killed the person responsible on the spot, however it appeared that Odin himself had approved it. He knew that the All-Father had been... Different since the Queen had died, but he hadn't expected him to go as far as torturing his own son. There had been a great deal of damage done on Midgard, but it hadn't been wreaked by Loki's hand. Heimdall had told Odin that before Thor had even brought him back here and expected him to believe it. Heimdall knew the younger prince had to be punished for his crimes against the realm before the events on Midgard but that did not come close to justifying this treatment.

Simply because some ancient myth created by the mortals had suggested the punishment currently being inflicted on Loki did not mean it had to happen. Heimdall knew he was not as bound by lore and superstition as the Allfather was but this had gone beyond insane.

Heimdall made his decision. He'd wait, but not for long. Just until the All-Father had stopped watching Loki as closely. He refused to allow this to happen, not when he could help.

* * *

There was a cave, deep beneath the main city of Asgard, so far down it was almost through the bottom of the realm. It had been forgotten by all but a few for lifetimes even in Aesir but had recently been rediscovered. A long, winding staircase was the only way in and out. At least it was the only way everyone except Heimdall and possibly the current inhabitant knew about. There was another hidden entrance in the rock, the remains of a long-dormant fault line, barely visible for the shadows around it, with rouch steps hewn into the rock behind it leading back up to the surface. Down here, even with the torches burning on the walls, it was too dark to make out specific details except in the spaces that had been lit up solely to threaten. At this moment, the cave was being used as a cell, a dungeon for the miserable creature that was once a prince, now just treated as a criminal. It was the first time Heimdall had been down here since it had been repurposed, several months since the first time he'd looked down here. He'd known what to expect, he'd already seen it as he saw everything, but he was still shocked. Everything was always far more vivid up close.

Odin seemed to have found the fact that _his own son_ had begged for his life amusing in some sick way, for he had allowed him to keep living in a way that was far worse than the merciful death he would have been ensured.

Loki lay on a huge, flat altar of rock under the stalactite, chained down. Heimdall knew that in the mortals' legends, Loki had been tied down with the entrails of his own sons but he didn't have any children yet, thank the gods. If Odin had stooped that low, Heimdall couldn't have stood for it for a second, no matter what his orders.

Hanging from a huge stalactite on the cave roof directly above Loki and illuminated by the torches places around its coiled form, was a giant serpent, its glittering black eyes standing out from the shadows. From metre long fangs as thick as Heimdall's muscular forearms, glistening venom dripped slowly. In the Midgardians' legend, someone had been there to catch most of the poison but down here there was no-one. Each droplet of the poison hitting Loki's face caused him to scream and spasm against his bonds, even after the time he'd been here. The impacts were followed by a horrific hiss of flesh burning under them, that quieter sound combined with Loki's screams bringing even Heimdall close to flinching.

The Gatekeeper walked quickly to the rock. Loki tried to move as he heard the footsteps echo across the floor but without much success. Heimdall saw that the younger demigod seemed to think they were coming back to hurt him more. It appeared that some of the guards had taken out their boredom out on the young demigod before his official punishment had begun. His bare, pale chest was a network of scars from before this particular punishment had started. The Gatekeeper made a personal promise to make the lives of any who had been involved in this very difficult, knowing that even the All-Father must be confronted when he was back in his right mind.

He didn't speak yet to try and calm the younger man but internally cursed the All-Father and his inability to listen. He'd been a changed man since Frigga's death, even more arrogant and impulsive than even _Thor_ had been before the events of the last few years.

Loki heard Heimdall's footsteps stop next to the altar and flinched away, trying to get as far as he could from the side he was stood, but the restraints stopped him from moving much at all.

The younger demigod tried to pull his pale, dangerously thin arm away from Heimdall despite the shackles and struggled feebly against the Gatekeeper's grip when he held his cold, twig-like wrist down against the rock to unlock the chains.

Loki whimpered, actually whimpered, a plea for mercy from someone too weak to use words, and Heimdall sighed softly.

"Be still, Loki, I'm here to set you free. Struggling will only make the pain last longer."

"Heimdall?" The younger demigod whispered barely audibly, seeming reassured just by the presence of a familiar voice.

"Yes." The Gatekeeper said quietly, not quite managing to maintain his usual calm façade.

Loki didn't believe that he was here to help, that much was obvious. Heimdall didn't blame him, after his own father had done this to him, he wouldn't trust someone who was practically a stranger, possibly an enemy. The gatekeeper straightened up as the manacles came undone. Loki immediately moved away from where the dripping venom hit, only a second before more would have hit his already-ruined face.

"I suggest we leave here as soon as possible." Heimdall said quietly.

Loki tried to stand but immediately started to fall, the Gatekeeper managing to catch him before he hit the ground.

"Perhaps it would be better if I carried you?" He suggested quietly. Loki didn't look up, just gave the slightest nod of agreement. Heimdall was almost surprise he managed to swallow his pride enough for this much assistance. They hadn't just broken the prince's body, but also his spirit. He hooked his arms under Loki's knees and shoulders and lifted him as gently as he could in his thick golden armour. Blood from Loki's various wounds immediately started dripping down Heimdall's armour and he knew he needed to get the youngest prince help as soon as he could.

"Why are you helping me?" Loki whispered as Heimdall started to walk up the cold stone stairs.

"Hm?"

"I was under the impression you didn't like me."

That was true. Then again, Heimdall didn't particularly like _anyone_ much. He respected Thor as he used to respect Odin and Frigga. Lady Sif had also earned that much from him. Most other people he simply tolerated and Loki was no different. There may actually have been a time when Loki was younger when Heimdall _did_ have some degree of that same respect for the younger of the princes but that had been replaced by mild resentment at his constant trickery and into outright dislike at around the time Loki had turned him into a giant ice cube. Otherwise Heimdall didn't hold anything against him that he didn't have against most others.

He didn't say any of that. He just shrugged. "No-one deserved that punishment, especially not you."

"I tried to enslave and kill an entire race."

"We both know that was not under your control."

Loki bowed his head to his chest without a response. It was obviously a painful memory and a difficult subject, as Heimdall expected. While the Chitauri realm and Thanos had somehow been shielded from him, he'd still seen all too much of Loki in the time before and since not to notice something wrong.

"I tried to convince your father..."

" _He's not my father!"_ Loki snapped. "He wasn't before _an_ d he certainly isn't now!"

Heimdall didn't respond to that. Loki was right, of course. Even if he _had_ still considered Odin his father after Thor's banishment and the events surrounding it, there was every reason for his bile now.

"Where are we?" Loki whispered, weakened by his outburst, tone seeming almost apologetic. That was something new.

"Heading towards the Bifrost."

"Will someone not see me?"

Heimdall snorted quietly. "You are not the only one on Asgard with magic."

"The All-Father-"

"-Is not as powerful as he once was, or as he seems to think he still is. He will never know you're gone."

Loki nodded thoughtfully. "You realise that if we are indeed as invisible as you implied, I could do anything to you and no-one would ever find out?"

"I'd like to see you try." Heimdall said in a distinctly amused tone.

"You don't think I could?"

"No, I do not."

Loki hesitated for a moment then nodded. "Neither do I."

"We have to leave Asgard."

Loki gave another nod, leaning further into Heimdall's chest. "I already knew that."

"Any preference as to which realm?" Heimdall asked, careful as ever.

"What does location matter?" He whispered, voice shaking. "I'll never been safe, not while the Allfather still lives."

"We are here."

Heimdall lay him down gently on the cold floor in the main chamber of the Bifrost. Loki didn't try to move from that spot, curling his knees up to his chest to try to stop himself from shivering, before Heimdall dropped a rough but definitely warm old blanket over him. It didn't quite stop him from shaking, that being mostly from shock rather than cold, but he muttered a "Thank you" all the same.

He heard Heimdall's heavy footsteps echo across the floor, and in his mind Loki could see the way the Gatekeeper always stood, back straight and shoulders back, full of confidence and the reassured calm of someone who knew they could literally rip you to pieces. When he was a lot younger, nothing more than a child, he'd been scared of this room and especially of its guardian. Even they would have been comforting sights at this point, but he didn't even see the darkness he'd always associated with blindness, just _nothing_.

It seemed only fitting that in the smouldering wreck of his life, Heimdall, the one he'd feared the most before he realised the Allfather's treachery, was the only person in the Nine Realms who actually cared enough to save him.

After such a long period of torture and the need to stay awake, his body was craving rest too much to care all that much about the philosophical side of his release. He knew that if he did fall asleep now, it would be more than just that and perhaps even the last time he did at all, but he was past the point of caring. He knew he needed to say one thing first.

"Heimdall?"

"Yes, my prince?" The lower voice echoed towards him, quiet but amplified by the hard surfaces of the cavernous room.

"Thank you for saving me."

Loki heard the echo of a weary sigh. "Do not thank me yet. You are not safe on Asgard, Loki. We must find somewhere you are, and the Allfather and his Ravens cannot watch all day.

"I already told you; there is no such place." Loki exhaled in what might have been a bitter laugh and finally managed to let go, more unconscious than asleep.


	2. Chapter 2

**In the spirit of clearing things up: This follows a vague pattern with my other Avengers series in that this is (oh god) an AU in which he had about as much control as Clint and Selvig.**

 **Also I have a few deadlines coming up so the next chapter might be in a fortnight, not next week.**

* * *

It started off as a fairly normal Friday evening in the Avengers Tower, as much as anything could be normal for a building full of off-duty super heroes. Although they all had their own floors, they'd all mostly taken to using the communal areas on nights like this.

Pepper, Natasha, Steve and Sam were sat on one of the sofas playing Mario Kart while Tony complained about not being allowed by the others to play after sulking for a week the last time he lost. Clint was sat on the floor in front of Natasha, leant back against her legs, probably asleep by now. He'd only got back from his most recent mission a few hours ago, even if he wouldn't specify who he was working for now.

Thor and Jane were curled up at one end of the other sofa, having only lived in the tower since Jane's visa had ended in England a few weeks ago, and Bruce was sat at the other, heading the same way as Clint. It was getting late and the scientist was halfway there already after a long week working on various projects, mostly ones Tony had asked him to help on for Stark Industries. Tony would undoubtedly wake him up as soon as he'd finished whining about the game, but until then Bruce intended to make the most of his few minutes of peace. The sound of the heavy rain outside was relaxing, somehow reaching his ears over Steve's surprisingly colourful cursing when Natasha Blue-Shelled him.

There was a thunderclap somewhere close and Bruce looked up out of the window just as it exploded with lightning.

The unnatural brightness burnt a shape into his retinas, a silhouette of two figures in the centre of the explosion, and Bruce blinked quickly to try and remove it as the same two came towards the door.

"What the fuck-"

Bruce's voice was drowned out by one of the window shattering under the blow from… was that a sword? He turned to the others and saw Natasha, Clint and Steve stood up in defensive stances, the two assassins pointing guns at the newcomers.

" _Thor_." A voice like an earthquake rumbled.

"Heimdall!" Their resident demigod stood up quickly, a grin on his face until he saw the grim expression on the other man's, almost hidden under his huge, gold helmet. So this was the Gatekeeper from Thor's battle stories, always there to get Thor and his warriors out of trouble just in the nick of time. Bruce didn't know what he'd expected, but the huge, muscular demigod with golden armour and dark skin hadn't been it. Guiltily, he realised he'd expected everyone on Asgard to be white, with the same vaguely Nordic features as Thor.

As Thor got closer, his expression of innocent concern turning darker, to anger with a rare but genuine fear. "What-"

"Later."

Thor narrowed his eyes but gave a sharp nod.

Heimdall cleared off Tony's bar with a sweep of one arm and lay the figure he'd been carrying down on its surface.

"I understand that you are a doctor?" He said, looking at Bruce for the first time.

Bruce hesitated, frozen in place by those eyes, pure gold but filled with something much harder. It was easy to forget that Thor wasn't actually human, but Heimdall was ancient and something far more than a prince. Bruce finally forced himself to look away, knowing that that golden gaze was something he never wanted to fall into again.

"Yeah." He said finally.

"Can you help him?"

Bruce looked down and nearly froze all over again. Lying on the table, unconscious and even paler than the last time Bruce had seen him, was Loki. Although most of his body was caked with blood and dirt, Bruce could tell there was some kind of serious damage to his face, although he couldn't imagine what it could have been caused by.

"That's-"

"Loki, yes. _Can you help him?_ " Heimdall repeated.

"I... I have no idea. We have to get him downstairs for me to even find out."

Heimdall nodded and lifted Loki's lifeless form from the table with a lot of apparent care but very little effort, striding confidently to the elevator with Bruce. Thor moved to follow them but the Gatekeeper looked him in the eyes. "Not yet."

"My brother-"

"Is unconscious and still losing blood." Bruce interrupted, more sharply than he'd intended to. "I need to take a look at him before he stops having enough blood left to lose."

Natasha took a step forward, giving Thor's arm a reassuring pat as she moved past him. "You need a hand, doc?"

Bruce's eyes quickly flickered over to Tony, still sat on the sofa in the exact same position he'd been in just before the gods broke through the window. He was having an anxiety attack or a flashback or something. Pepper had noticed and was doing her best to get him out of it, but it was unlikely Bruce's closest friend on the team would be much help here. He nodded quickly and Natasha slid into the lift with them, swiftly giving JARVIS the instructions for the floor in case the AI had missed anything.

As they the med bay, Bruce found himself thanking god they left the room fully prepared for a patient in case a mission went bad or there was an emergency.

If this wasn't an emergency, Bruce didn't know what was.

"Put him on there." Bruce said, gesturing to the examination table at the other side of the room.

Heimdall nodded and laid Loki on it with as much care as he could, and started unbuckling the blood-streaked gold vambraces. Bruce's eyes were drawn to the ritual, unable to look away from his muscular forearms until the god tilted his head questioningly.

Bruce coughed, looking away quickly. "Any of that blood yours?"

Heimdall shook his head. "This is all his."

Natasha produced a knife from her sleeve and slit open Loki's thin shirt without another word from Bruce. She narrowed her eyes as she assessed the damage. Bruce followed her line of site and mirrored the expression; he was far from an expert on the subject, but those seemed to be pretty obvious signs of torture. Natasha had reached the same conclusion.

"If Thor's any indicator, we can't stitch him up, even with Stark tech, but I can clean up and bandage the worst if you want to get a start on-" she paused for a second, taking in the bloody mess of Loki's face. She didn't look as disgusted as Bruce felt, just kind of at a loss for words. "-whatever caused all that. Acid, maybe?"

Bruce carefully moved blood-soaked, unwashed hair away from Loki's wounds, finally getting a good look at his ruined face.

"Definitely some kind of chemical burn." Bruce cursed quietly as he cleaned more blood and grime from the burns. "Shit, what the hell have they been doing to him?"

"Are you familiar with the old myths and prophecies about our kind?" Heimdall inquired as Bruce continued to examine the wounds. The glimpse he caught of Natasha's dark expression told Bruce that she knew exactly what Heimdall was talking about, but they couldn't all be super-spies.

"Some of them." She said carefully, glancing at Bruce.

"Then specifically the ones about Loki's fate?" Heimdall prompted.

Bruce shook his head. "Not really."

"Now is not the time. Later, I will educate you on these matters."

Bruce glanced up at him over his glasses, fixing the god with a look that clearly said ' _you'd better'_.

He took a light out of one of the trays of medical equipment on the table next to him and pulled back the least damaged of Loki's eyelids carefully. He hissed under his breath. He had been about to check if the demigod's pupils would dilate but there was no point; Loki's eye had gone a milky white. He checked the other but that was even worse, destroyed by whatever they'd done to the rest of his face. Bruce cursed then looked up.

"Did you know about this? About his eyes?"

Heimdall nodded once.

"God." He muttered then looked up at the taller man. "We need to get him to a hospital or something. I haven't had any of the training you need to deal with this."

"He is still a wanted criminal on your realm and you are the only ones with any knowledge of Aesir."

"I don't know this much! I'm just a physicist!" Bruce protested. That wasn't strictly true; Bruce couldn't have _just_ been a physicist to get on the research project he'd been on that indirectly got him into this mess, or to maintain his cover when he'd been in India, but this was beyond anything else he'd ever done. Loki's injuries were worse than anything he'd ever even seen on anything still alive, never mind anything he'd had to treat himself.

He felt Natasha's hand in his shoulder, bringing him out of the spiral into his mind and back to reality. He became uncomfortably aware of his high heart rate and took a deep breath. An appearance from the Other Guy was the last thing they needed right now.

"Do whatever you can. I have some contacts who should be able to help us out, but they won't be able to get here until tomorrow, absolute earliest."

"What do they know about Asgardians?" Bruce said, trying to hide his disbelief but not quite succeeding.

"They're ex-SHIELD, so enough."

Bruce nodded reluctantly. "Call them. I'll clean him up, but I can't do much else."


	3. Chapter 3

**Assignments are all sorted now, I'm all yours till the middle of January! Sorry about that delay.**

* * *

It had taken nearly five hours, but they'd finally cleaned up and dressed Loki's wounds to an almost acceptable level. They couldn't do any better without Asgardian technology and they didn't have that yet, but Bruce still felt like they should have tried something else. _Anything_ else.

Their needles hadn't worked but Tony's stupidly advanced, stupidly expensive MRI and X-Ray machines had. The demigod had been beaten half to death at least twice, and that was just the _recent_ remnants of fractures and scars. He didn't know who'd caused the older breaks, healed but still visible on the x-Rays, but Bruce was pretty sure he was beginning to understand how Loki got to be the dangerously unstable megalomaniac they'd had to fight three years ago.

And even after _those actions,_ Bruce wasn't entirely convinced he fully deserved his punishment. He was pretty sure the images of Loki's face when he'd finally cleaned off the dried blood and grime, skin almost entirely corroded with sharp, damaged bones jutting through whatever was left, would be seared into the insides of his eyelids for the rest of his life. At this point, Bruce wasn't sure if the Asgardians' ability to survive almost anything was so much of a good thing.

He should have done more, he didn't know what 'more' could have been, but he was exhausted, practically dead on his feet, and even if he did have any idea what to do, in this state he'd probably just make it worse, not better.

The fatigue was even showing on Natasha as they stepped into the elevator, her tight white t-shirt stained with blood and sweat, and bags were starting to show under eyes that were usually far brighter even in the direst situation.

She raised an eyebrow when noticed him looking at her. "What?"

"You've got some blood…" he gestured to a thick smear across her cheekbone.

She shrugged. "Leave it. It might show them how serious this is."

"It was pretty hard to miss even from a distance."

"They didn't see what we did."

"I know." Bruce said quietly. "I just hope we've done enough."

Natasha nodded silently. Although she didn't say anything, Bruce could tell she was thinking the same as him; neither of them were convinced that Loki was entirely deserving of this punishment and, despite Heimdall leaving to find Thor earlier in the night, they both needed an explanation beyond a reference to an old legend to be even halfway satisfied.

"You ready for this, doc?" Natasha said quietly as the elevator doors opened on the floor JARVIS had told them everyone else was waiting.

He laughed humourlessly. "No way. You?"

She smirked. "Always."

"Jeez. How much bullshit do you guys have to put up with?"

The smirk turned harder, and the corners of her eyes tightened. "Way more than this."

* * *

For once, it hadn't taken much effort to get all the Avengers and their hangers-on sat around the table. Most of the time, even just for regular team meetings, it could take hours to round them all up into one place.

You had to have a certain type of personality to want to be considered a super hero, Natasha considered, and getting people like that to sit down and shut up for more than five seconds was like herding cats.

By the time she and Bruce had come back from the med bay, everyone was already sat around the long table in the room that was probably normally used for Stark Industries board meetings, not the Avengers' councils of war. They were sat in silence for once, no-one managing a single smartass comment as they walked in, all avoiding each other's eyes.

This was different to any other time she'd seen them in a room together. Most of the time Stark was obnoxious and paced all around, but even he was subdued since the demigods had turned up at his door again. His PTSD wasn't exactly a secret, but Natasha suspected that Pepper and Rhodes were the only ones who'd seen him like this before, as even Bruce seemed more concerned than usual about his friend.

She stood back from the others, leaning against the wall on the opposite side of the table to Heimdall, the perfect place to judge the reactions from her team.

The Gatekeeper looked them all in the eye as she and Bruce finally took their places, probably reading every detail of their lives just from those glances, and Natasha got the impression that he wasn't usually the one to give any kind of speech. He hadn't said a word after they'd stopped asking him questions earlier and now he seemed to be taking in each Avenger's character to construct a response.

"Loki's injuries were the result of his punishment for his actions here, two years ago."

She'd already known that but the quick google search on her phone in the elevator to refresh her knowledge of that mythology hadn't exactly put her mind at ease.

"For the last two years, since the Chitauri invasion of Midgard, Loki has been locked in the deepest cells of Asgard's dungeons. Thor left to come here just after their mother's death. The All-Father has been… different, since then. He took Loki from the regular cells for the more unusual punishment that resulted in what you saw today."

"And what exactly was that?" Bruce asked before anyone else could say anything.

"For most of the last year, Loki has been in the caves below Asgard, chained up below a serpent. The creature has been dripping venom down onto him."

Natasha had never seen snake's venom melt anyone's face before, but she guessed they hadn't exactly used a corn snake to do it, or even something more dangerous from Earth. She remembered something else about the myth though:

"Someone was supposed to catch the poison." She interrupted as Heimdall was about to continue. "If they had, he wouldn't have been wounded that badly."

"In the myth, yes. In reality, the only people to save Loki from his punishment were Thor, who was here, and Frigga, who died around the same time. No-one else in the Nine Realms would have cared enough."

"You should have brought me back." Thor said quietly, voice so filled with rage it was more of a growl than real speech.

"How do you think your father would have reacted to that? It took me this long to divert enough of his attention away from your brother to give me the opportunity to save him. The gods only know how he would have reacted to your interference."

"I should have been _told_ at least!" Thor said, standing up. The two gods stared at each other, both just as unwilling to back down.

Clint leaned forwards slowly, leaning his elbows on the table. "Both of you are acting like he didn't deserve any of this."

Thor looked practically murderous at the accusation that his brother could be anything more than a victim. Natasha shot her friend a look of warning. She'd been thinking along the same lines as Clint; the punishment Loki had been given may have been overkill, at least when administered for that long without a break, but the guy was responsible for an attempted genocide. Still, she had a little more tact than Clint on this subject, and a lot less emotional involvement.

"No, Nat. You didn't see that town he bulldozed. You didn't have that bastard inside your head. I couldn't-" he stopped, frowning through gritted teeth, and looked away. "He's not exactly fucking innocent."

Thor turned, about to raise his arm for Mjölnir before Heimdall caught his hand and lowered it.

"Loki is not as guilty as you think."

That was an instant recipe for protest.

"Bullshit!" "Fuck off." Clint and Tony said at the same time, disbelief and disgust in their tones.

Natasha was silent. She'd suspected that it wasn't quite as it seemed just because Heimdall had thought it was safe to being Loki back here. Maybe the guy wasn't exactly on her Christmas card list, but she'd at least hear Heimdall out before she tried to kill anyone.

Heimdall silenced them both with a look before continuing.

"I lost sight of Loki when he fell from the Bifrost four years ago. We thought him dead." That 'we' obviously included Thor and probably whoever was left of his family on Asgard. "I only started to see him again when he appeared in one of your SHIELD bases two years ago, when he stole the Tesseract."

Clint visibly flinched and Natasha's hand went to her friend's shoulder. He reached up and intertwined his fingers with hers.

"After those events, when Loki was brought back to Asgard, he told me he was innocent. He also asked - _begged_ \- me to look for the creature that had controlled him and those who had been influenced here on Midgard. I found a creature beyond the Nine Realms at the edge of the galaxy, one who has been causing havoc on worlds far distant to the ones under Asgard's rule. Loki was telling the truth."

"How do we know he isn't controlling you right now?" Stark said, seemingly pretty calm despite what must have been going on beneath the surface. Bruce gave him a similar look to the one she'd just given Clint.

An expression formed on Heimdall's face which suggested a thousand painful things that would be inflicted on the billionaire if he tried cognitive re-calibration. He slowly removed his helmet, placing it on the table with a heavy _thunk_ , somehow making that gesture seem like a challenge.

"Did he honestly look strong enough to control someone to you?" Bruce said quickly before Tony could dig that hole any deeper. He obviously wasn't going to let his friend start a fight with an Aesir warrior who must have been at least 6'2 _without_ the helmet now resting in front of them. "He was unconscious before Heimdall even got him here. He's been deprived of any real amount of sleep, food or fluids for probably months, according to the X-Rays most of his bones have been broken at least once in the last year and he's completely blind, Tony. I doubt he'd even have enough power left in him to control one of _us_ long enough to get him a cup of coffee, never mind another Asgardian for hours, maybe longer."

"And Heimdall is one of Asgard's greatest warriors. Even on his best days, my brother could never have killed or controlled him." Thor said, voice unusually quiet since his brother and friend had arrived earlier. Nat didn't think she imagined the glimmer of pride in the Gatekeeper's golden eyes at the comments.

Bruce scratched his head and frowned then spoke up quietly. "I'm inclined to agree with them. Heimdall wouldn't have brought him here if he was still that dangerous."

Stark's eyes widened in disbelief. "What's to stop him killing one, or even all, of us when he's healed up?"

"Nothing." Natasha shrugged, giving Stark a sharp look. "No-one would be crazy enough to bring the same guy who tried to take over the world back here. That's why I'm voting trust him."

Stark looked over at Steve, sat at the head of the table. He hadn't spoken yet. Natasha could practically see the cogs turning behind his eyes. He must have known they'd turn to him for the final decision.

"I agree with Nat." He said quietly. "Even if we can't trust him, we've beaten him before and he doesn't have an army this time. And if everything Doctor Banner said is right, he won't be attacking anyone for a long time."

Nat quietly thanked whatever deities were out there that at least three of them were thinking clearly on this. If Heimdall was telling the truth, and Natasha saw no reason why the older demigod shouldn't be, Loki could be a valuable asset to the team when he was stronger. Clint wouldn't be seeing that, and Natasha understood why, if anyone who'd tried to unmake her was given to them as a charge, she wouldn't be first in line to trust them either, never mind let them live anywhere near her, but she knew he'd come around to it eventually when he'd had chance to think it all through. She'd have to keep an eye on Stark, but maybe this could work out.

Steve looked like a guy who already knew that he'd regret his decision but still said; "That makes it four against two. He stays."


	4. Chapter 4

**Ack, late again. I'm the Avengers fanfic equivalent of George RR Martin on how long it takes me to write, sorry.**

 **This is a kind of dialogue-y chapter, in which there are some explanations for Clint's decisions about Loki (but none for Tony's yet), and maybe a little bit of comfort to go with all that hurt. But also some more hurt with even more planned for the future, because I'm a bitch.**

 **Also, I don't really rate my ability to write Thor, so he gets far less lines than he deserves.**

* * *

"So you're defending _him_ now?" Clint yelled but Natasha didn't flinch. Bruce had just left Thor, Jane and Heimdall alone in the conference room and he was the last to go back to his own rooms, leaving the two assassins in the corridor outside.

Natasha tilted her head. "Yes."

"Why?" Barton said through gritted teeth.

"Because right now, he needs it."

"He tried to kill all of you! He tried to make me do it!"

"That wasn't you." She said quietly, and watched him deflate from furious back down to looking more like a terrified kid than a trained spy. No matter how much he hid it around the rest of the team, forcing himself to be that same sarcastic son of a bitch she'd known for years, Clint had been damaged more than he'd admit by the mind control two years ago. She was the only one who got to see him like this, and it wasn't the first time she'd had to say those words.

"I know." He said softly, leaning back against the wall. "I'm just having a hard time processing that it wasn't him either. I thought I just had that one enemy. That one guy I'd kill without a second thought and now we're supposed to treat him like he's innocent? You saw New York after the battle, Nat but you didn't see that town in New Mexico. There was about one building left standing after the emergency crews got out."

"So you think he deserves this?"

"No. Fuck no. Of course not. The last thing I needed after that bastard, whichever bastard it was, got out of my head would be that."

"So?"

"So what?"

"Why'd you say that?"

"You know why I said that, I just told you. Loki's still dangerous, even if he isn't genocidal."

"I know."

"And you still want him to stay?"

"I figure if we give him a chance, maybe he can be dangerous _on our side_ , not dangerous on someone else's."

"You really think that'll work?"

"It worked for me."

"You were different." He was hiding defeat in his tone. Probably nobody but Natasha would have noticed, but it meant she'd almost won.

Natasha looked him in the eyes. "How? We all have red in our ledgers, Clint, every last person living in this tower. Loki's probably not even got the worst, not compared to me or you or even Stark."

"You're a human."

Natasha shook her head, finally breaking eye contact. There were days even now when she didn't feel that way. "And you're an idiot if you can't even see Loki as an _asset._ We take risks. That's our job."

"Don't expect us to be best friends."

"I won't. I doubt I'll be on his list of favourite people either."

Clint didn't reply to that, looking over her shoulder into the conference room. Natasha glanced back, following his line of sight. Thor had sat down in one of the empty chairs, elbows on the table, head in his hands. She'd never seen Thor, usually so sure of himself, looking so lost. Heimdall was stood over him, a hand on the other demigod's shoulder, and Jane was still sat next to him, where she'd been for the meeting. They were talking, she couldn't hear what about, but she could guess.

"Are we going to stand around in the corridor yelling at each other for the rest of the night, or are you going to go apologise?"

Clint nodded, and she could tell he was wincing internally at what he'd said at the meeting. "I might as well get it over with."

"I'm going for a shower. Maybe later on we can have a rational conversation about what to do with our guest?" Which meant putting together some sort of plan for if she was wrong and Loki was the same as before. There was no SHIELD left to help them this time, they'd have to prepare for that situation themselves.

Clint nodded. "Doesn't look like anyone else is going to be making those plans. Meet me on the firing range?" One of the few places in the Tower that they could meet undisturbed. Stark tested his weapons in his lab and other than the three of them, only Sam used any and he only used the Tower's facilities during daylight

"Bring Steve." She said, starting to walk down the corridor to the elevator.

"Will do." Clint said, already side-tracked. He turned to the door to the conference room and, taking a deep breath, walked back inside just as the elevator doors closed and Natasha lost sight of him. It took a lot for Clint to swallow his pride, and Natasha just had t hope this time would last long enough to work out a more permanent solution.

* * *

It hadn't taken too long for everyone to head back onto their own floors after the meeting. Everyone was absorbed in their own thoughts, whether they were denying what they'd been told, that there was some higher, more dangerous force still out there, or just trying to process it. Bruce had heard Clint yelling at Natasha for not supporting him as he was leaving, but it hadn't seemed to bother her. The archer hadn't seen what they had, and he had more personal issues with their refugee than the rest of the team combined, after the sceptre's control and the events on the helicarrier before Natasha had dragged him back to reality.

It had been another three hours since Bruce had showered and laid in bed, making it nearly nine since their visitors had arrived but he wasn't even close to sleep yet, even though he was exhausted. Questions were running through his head, for his team, for Heimdall and for Loki himself. He wasn't happy with the answers he'd been given so far. There seemed like there was a lot more to this than just Odin's inability to listen to Heimdall's warnings, which Bruce had asked about after the official part of the meeting was over, and everyone but Thor and Heimdall had left the conference room. He hadn't got any satisfactory answers yet, and even though the Gatekeeper had claimed that he owed nothing to Odin any more, Bruce wasn't convinced enough to completely trust him.

He was finally drifting off now, he realised, too tired to let stress keep him up for much longer. He closed his eyes and waited for the nightmares to start, for once not caring as long as he actually slept.

He was about to fall asleep when JARVIS's voice echoed into his ears. "Doctor Banner?"

Bruce opened his eyes slowly, reaching for his glasses. "Yeah?"

"Our guest is awake."

His head fell back against his pillow.

"Doctor?"

"Yeah, I'm up." He sat up stiffly. "You spoken to anyone else?"

"Just you and Agent Romanov."

"Tell Thor, but don't let him go down there yet."

"Doing so now, Doctor Banner."

"Thanks, JARVIS." He said through a yawn, standing up and pulling on a clean shirt and trousers. These were going to be the longest few days he'd had in a while, and probably the longest he'd spent entirely as himself in _years_.

Bruce yawned again, dragging himself out of his apartment in the tower and into the elevator. Somehow both Natasha and Thor had got down there before him. Natasha was stood in front of the door to the med bay, as if blocking Thor from getting in, but he didn't seem to be arguing. Yet. So much for JARVIS stopping him from coming down here.

Thor turned and nodded at Bruce as he stepped out of the elevator, but his expression remained grim.

"We must decide who the first to speak to my brother must be."

* * *

"We must decide who the first to speak to my brother must be."

Natasha glanced at Bruce, who seemed decidedly more nervous when confronted with the idea of a _conscious_ Loki than he had with the unconscious one they'd been treating earlier, especially having presumably just been woken up. He looked at Natasha almost desperately, trying to get out of it already, before Thor continued.

"I doubt Loki would appreciate my company. I should have known it wasn't him, I should have listened to his pleas, but I did not. I will not be on his good side." Thor admitting he'd been wrong about anything to anyone other than Jane was kind of a new one, but he was right about that, at least. Natasha wouldn't have been too pleased if the first person she saw was someone who'd let this happen to her, even if Thor had been totally ignorant in his complacency.

Bruce swallowed. "I hate to admit it, but you're probably right, one of us should go in there first. But I'm not sure how well he'll react to me being the first person speaking to him. The last time we saw each other, the Other Guy beat him into the floor."

Natasha could see where this was going; volunteer or be volunteered. "Then let me go in there to talk to him first. One killer to another."

Bruce looked reluctant, but nodded all the same. Thor obviously objected to her calling out his brother for what he was, but when Bruce nodded he conceded. It was pretty much their only option anyway; none of the others were around.

She opened the door and stepped through, feet almost silent on the hard floor despite her boots.

Loki didn't so much as twitch when Natasha entered the med-bay, even though she was certain he heard her walk in, no matter how quiet she'd been with his Asgardian hearing.

She stood at the end of the bed, waiting for him to react.

"Agent Romanov." He said finally when it was clear she wasn't going to say anything herself, voice a rough murmur through his parched lips. "Are you here to kill me?"

So he still recognised her footsteps, maybe her breathing. He'd lost his sight but not his memory. Maybe that was a good thing, maybe not.

"No." Not defensive. Just a statement. She'd have been just as open if she had been.

"A pity." He sighed quietly. "I assume this is because Thor or Heimdall will have forbidden your team from having your vengeance and I from finally finding some peace?"

"That, and I make it a rule not to offend people who're going to outlive me by five thousand years." She shrugged even though she knew he couldn't see it.

"You offended me, back on the helicarrier." Loki said pointedly. "You made a special effort."

"You really think you're going to outlive me at all?"

"Touché." The demigod smirked again. Natasha was slightly surprised by the French but she supposed she shouldn't have been. He'd obviously spent more time on Earth than his brother in the past, she knew that just from the way Clint had said he'd used human technology the last time he was here. "Why are you really here?"

"Maybe I just wanted a conversation with my favourite Asgardian sociopath."

" _Conversation_." He repeated quietly in a tone of mildly amused curiosity. "I can't help but think that means something different in this context."

His voice sounded as uncaring as it always had, but what little of his face was visible under the gauze and bandages, mostly just his lips and part of his lower jaw, showed fear. Natasha had had 'conversations' that had left her feeling that way in the past, and still carried the scars to prove it.

"Not in that way." Not this time anyway. If Natasha found out the demigod was fucking with them even a little, it would be a very different story.

He gave a slight nod, pausing for a few seconds to let part of the tension drain from his shoulders, then said, very hesitantly: "I couldn't trouble you for a drink, could I?"

There was a jug of water on the table next to the hospital bed but, obviously, he wouldn't have seen that. She poured out a cup for him, plastic not glass so he didn't kill anyone, even if the biggest risk seemed to be to himself, then watched him struggle to sit up for a minute.

"You need a hand?"

"Not from you." Loki spat, but it was halfhearted, and he didn't offer any objections when she wrapped an arm around his shoulders and helped pull him upright. He didn't thank her either, but she didn't expect it; he was way too proud for that. She would have been too in the same position.

She pressed the cup into his hand carefully, keeping it steady as he raised it to his lips when she saw how badly he was shaking.

His hands were slightly less unsteady when he lowered the cup again, licking his lips with his freshly moistened tongue. "Where am I?"

"The Avengers Tower."

"Heimdall brought me to Midgard?" His control on his tone slipped for a second, a twinge of panic in his voice.

"Unless he brought the Tower to Asgard."

"They say sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, Agent Romanov."

"And look how much we both care."

Loki's lips twitched up at one corner, but the amusement disappeared as soon as it had arrived. "I assume Heimdall has spoken to you?"

"All of us."

"And you believed him?"

"I did."

"I'm assuming some of your team mates weren't so… receptive?"

"After the last two times you were on Earth? You're hardly anyone's most trusted person."

Loki smiled bitterly, although it seemed far more genuine than the smirks he'd forced. "When your team finally decides that I am more trouble than I'm worth, my brother should have a knife of Asgardian manufacture somewhere in his belongings. I'd rather you do it than any of the amateurs."

Natasha nodded thoughtfully. "Thank you for your co-operation."

"Thank you, Agent Romanov."


	5. Chapter 5

Haha, I literally have no excuse for this lateness. It's been written and sat in my FF documents since before Christmas, I just completely forgot to post it. Please don't hate me.

* * *

"He's in a bad way." Natasha said quietly, walking into the office next to the med bay where Bruce was examining some of notes on Aesir biology he'd made with Heimdall's assistance. "Almost as damaged psychologically as he is physically."  
Bruce nodded. He'd guessed that would be the case. Such a long period of torture would take its toll on anyone, even a demigod. "I've told JARVIS to keep an eye on him."  
"He won't try and kill himself. He's way too proud to try that yet."  
"I don't know. People can do anything when they're desperate." Bruce said, a twinge of regret in his voice. He knew what it was like not to see a way out. Sometimes an end felt like the only way to keep what was left of your pride. Although he hadn't spoken to the demigod for himself yet and, while he normally trusted Natasha's judgements of people, he didn't think she could remain completely neutral about Loki's presence, especially after what he'd done to Clint last time.  
"Natasha, can I ask you something?"  
"Fire away."  
"Why are you helping?"  
"Honestly?" She said, tilting her head slightly. "I don't think he's a threat."  
"What?"  
"He's broken. Right now at least, he isn't a problem, he might even prove useful when he's been around here for longer. And I'm not comfortable with handing someone over to the authorities when they're that weak. Not with the authorities that have been around since SHIELD shut down."  
"Was that sympathy? From you?" Bruce didn't bother to stifle his shock, she would have noticed anyway.  
"Both of us know what it's like to be unmade, Bruce. Now Loki does too."  
"I think he's known for a long time." Bruce said quietly, glancing at the x-ray images on the computer screen in front of him again. Loki's bones were covered with healed fractures and breaks, many of which were so old he'd missed them on first inspection. He knew how those ones had happened just by looking at them. Many of them were the types of fracture that Bruce knew were the sort that doctors in hospitals looked for in cases of suspected child abuse. He knew because it was everything the doctors had missed or purposely ignored on his own X-rays and scans when he was still a kid.  
"I'd love to say I'm surprised." Natasha replied just as softly, leaning over his shoulder to look at the images.  
"But you're not?"  
"You are? Odin had him chained to a rock and tortured. I don't think he'd be above a couple of broken bones when he thought no-one was looking. I'm just a little concerned that Heimdall and Thor didn't think any of this was worth mentioning."  
Bruce nodded stiffly. This was all too familiar to him, bringing back old aches he'd been suppressing for most of his life. Natasha placed a hand on his shoulder and he flinched away from the contact, something he'd not done in months.  
"If this is getting to you, Bruce, I'm sure I can deal with whatever needs doing until the experts get here." Obviously she knew about his own experiences, those would be plastered all over his old SHIELD file.  
"They trusted me to do this. I can work through it."  
" _Bruce_." She warned.  
"He'll be out of here by tomorrow. I can cope until then."

* * *

He heard footsteps but these weren't ones he recognised. He wasn't afraid, regardless of who it was. Honestly, what else could they possibly do to him here that hadn't already been done? Nothing. But he wished he knew who it was, he wished he could still see them.

"Good morning."  
Banner. He was the only Avenger Loki hadn't met the last time he was here, only seen and, more importantly, heard him in the archive footage Barton had found of several of his lectures and briefly through a window on the helicarrier. He had met the beast Banner turned into but that... That _thing_ couldn't give him an accurate representation of the scientist's usual actions.  
"Good morning, Doctor."

Banner didn't seem surprised that Loki recognised him, but it was hard to tell without judging the other man's facial expressions. His breathing hadn't sped up but Loki remembered seeing in a file the last time he was here that Banner had to keep his breathing and heart rate in check to stop himself from turning into the beast that had slammed him so hard into the floor that when they finally apprehended him, he'd only just crawled from an indentation in the concrete. Then Thor had muzzled him before he could even try to explain. It-

He realised now that Banner was saying something that he'd missed half of when he'd been slowly stumbling deeper into his own memories.

"-But that can wait. For now I just need to check your wounds, make sure they don't get infected."  
Loki nodded slightly, not replying. This was most likely going to be painful, regardless of the doctor's apparently pure intentions.  
"Can you sit up on your own or...?" Banner left the question unfinished, seemingly trying not to offend the demigod. Loki wanted to snap at him how he was perfectly capable of moving on his own but that would have been a lie he doubted even he could make believable, especially after Romanov had to help him last time.  
"I... I do not know. Somehow I doubt it." He added bitterly. There was no point protesting this time, Banner had probably seen what had happened the previous night.  
"Is it okay if I help you?"  
"I'd rather you didn't have to, but it's probably necessary."  
Banner was silent for a few beats and Loki guessed he'd nodded. Loki flinched away as a hand wrapped around his forearm.  
"Sorry, did that hurt?" Banner sounded genuinely worried.  
"No." He said all too quickly. He sighed softly and continued more slowly. "No. I was not expecting it, that's all."  
"Sorry," Banner repeated. "I'm going to try that again, if that's okay?"  
"Fine."  
Banner carefully wrapped one arm around his shoulders and held Loki's hand in the other, pulling him upright. His grip on the demigod was as gentle as he could get it while still helping him up. Loki appreciated that, knowing his current state of weakness and the pain he was already in, even if another part was screaming for allowing this.  
He felt Banner start to unwind the bandages from his face. He winced as the final layer was pulled away from the ruined skin.  
Banner muttered another apology, inspecting the damage so closely Loki felt his warm breath against whatever remained of his cheek. It took all his will not to flinch. Any time someone had been this close to him recently, it hadn't ended well for him.  
He relaxed slightly the second Banner moved away. The doctor obviously noticed because he spoke again, voice still soft.  
"I haven't finished yet, I've still got to clean the burns. I'll be as gentle as I can, I promise."

Loki nodded stiffly again.

"Are you okay?"  
"Gods, of course not."  
"That was kind of a stupid question, I guess." Banner sighed. "This is going to hurt."  
"Everything seems to." Loki whispered.  
Another sigh. "I'm sorry."  
"You already said that."  
"I mean it." He insisted. "We got you into this, me more than most of the others. That's what I'm apologising for."

"I got myself into this. You stopped me before anyone else could get hurt." The last few words came through gritted teeth as Banner started cleaning his face.

"Heimdall said you were being controlled."

"Heimdall was right. But I brought it on myself after everything I've done over the years."

"I don't believe you."

He had to scoff at that. "Surely Thor has drunkenly regaled you with his stories of my most notorious failures by now?"

"A few, yeah." Banner paused as he continued in his work. "Mostly he's just told us about all the times you saved his ass."

"That can't have taken long."

"Maybe he remembers it differently."

Loki sighed softly as he felt fresh bandages being wrapped round his face. "Perhaps."

"In a few hours we're taking you to a proper medical facility. They can look after you better than I can."  
His alarm must have registered on what remained of his face.  
"It's owned by a few doctors Natasha knows. Ex-SHIELD. I was suspicious too but apparently they've been doing freelance work wherever they can get it since last year, and Natasha has enough on them to make life pretty uncomfortable if they tell anyone. You'll be safe, I promise."  
Loki didn't know what to think of a promise from a man who was supposed to be his enemy. It would appear that Heimdall had told them about his situation, but all the same, he found it hard to be anywhere near trusting after the way he'd been treated for the last few years. He supposed he didn't have much of a choice. He was in no position to argue, not yet at least.


End file.
